Rough start for volleyball

Women’s volleyball started their 2018 season with road games against the Moorpark College Raiders and the College of the Canyons Cougars.

The Brahmas lost both games in straight sets to start their season 0-2.

Against the Raiders, the team showed fight in the second and third set, but it was enough as the team lost (25-9, 25-19 and 25-16).

Head Coach Edison Zhou was not on the bench for the Moorpark game due to the birth of his child. He though coached the team against the Cougars.

Assistant Coach Meaghan Wheeler coached the team for the Raiders game. She said she liked what she saw from the team despite dropping the season opener.

“The first match for me we had a rough start at the beginning, but I felt they got more comfortable in the rest of the game,” Wheeler said.

Catelynn Pulido led the Brahmas with six kills, followed by Rachel Wiley and Keturah Scott with two.

For the Raiders, Miranda Poole led the team with 15 kills, while Alexis Wolf had seven. There was a tie for assists with Amanda Collet and Jessica Crogg both getting 11.

The Cougars game Friday was more of the same for the team. In the first set, the Brahmas lost 25-7. In the second and third sets, the team lost 25-13 and 25-12 respectively.

Wheeler said that for the Canyons’ game they showed major improvement despite playing a difficult team.

“We played a tougher opponent, but I thought in the end we played a little better,” Wheeler said. “I think it is going to take us a couple of games to get our groove and get everything settled because we did not have a preseason. We just got right into things. Overall I felt the energy was there. We just have to continue to minimize mistakes.”

Pulido and Wiley led the team with three kills, followed by Scott who had two.

Shayla Johnson had 15 kills for the Cougars, while Grace Ferguson had 11. Sydney Higginson led Canyons with 13 assists.

Wheeler hopes for the games against Santa Monica College and Citrus, the team continues to show areas of improvement.

Zhou said that the team at the beginning were not executing well.

“We missed to much especially in hitting. For this team we still have to improve. We only have three returning players and nine new faces, so this is a pretty young team,” Zhou said. “The sophomores are the main point of the team, so we need more players.”

Zhou said that more players will come to the team, however he said it has been difficult to recruit because they started late.

Zhou mentioned in which areas they need to work on for the upcoming games.

“So right now we are missing a right side blocker. It is a very important position for college level. Our two outside hitters need more skills to control the ball. And for the setter the same thing,” Zhou said.

Zhou said that they need to be more efficient when they are in a scoring opportunity.

Catelynn Pulido, team captain, said the game against Moorpark was more of the team getting their feet wet.

“It was more of an expirement. Not all of us had the experience playing in a team together. I feel we didn’t play our best. We had some highlights and I felt we could have done a lot better,” Pulido said.

Pulido said that for the COC game they were working well together no matter what the score was. They are just working to improve on their fundamentals.

The Brahmas are at SMC Wednesday, before having their home opener against Citrus on Friday.